Fair isle on the (almost) Fair Isle

Hello friends!

Last time I wrote, I was feverishly knitting away on 2 sweaters with the plan of bringing them with me on my late-May vacation. How did that turn out? Well, I finished one a few days into the trip, in time to wear it on the trip, and finished the second one on the plane trip back, which is about close enough to the goal that I’m still calling it a win. The other fun part is that I’d already finished a third sweater to bring along and wear, so all around not too bad.

The one I finished and wore was for Iceland, the first 4 days of the trip, and it was the Treysta pullover. I made it in Lett Lopi, which is super warm Icelandic wool, it was perfect and I wore it for 4 days straight, and it made me resolve to knit more things out of Lopi for the days when it is cold as all get out. (We have those days in Canada too.)

I didn’t get a proper modelled photo of Treysta, but here is one of me wearing it while sipping a delightful cocktail in Reykjavik:

(I knitted it in navy blue for the base colour and a combination of light grey and greens for the yoke. Also, Iceland looks like this. Not too shabby):

So I knitted a Lopi sweater to wear in Iceland, but wanted to knit a stranded colour-work sweater to wear in Scotland. I succeeded! I finished the actual sweater before the trip, cut the steek for the neck, blocked it, and then knitted the collar in the first few days of the trip. By the time I hit the Shetland islands, my sporty almost-a-J-Crew-style-knockoff sweater was finished. Here I am wearing it while awaiting the ferry from Yell to Unst, plus a few detail shots from later on. (Those are names of some of the islands – are they not the best place names ever? I think they are.)

On the whole I was pleased with how it came out – I was going for a sort of sporty contemporary look and I think I got there. I do wish I’d done it about an inch longer overall and started the neckline about a half inch lower. But, I like it and the colour combination and will wear it lots. I put together my own stitch pattern and colour choices, feeling pretty good about those too. This was a bottom-up raglan with a steek for the neckline.

I used Knit Picks Palette for this sweater, because guys, I’ve got so much of it stashed. It is a bit less on the wooly side than traditional sheepy wools, but still quite light and nice to work with, and has a whole bunch of colours. This is the first colour-work project I’ve done in more than a year and I really enjoyed it – I’m hoping to get another stranded colour-work sweater on the needles this year, either something in a v-neck or a super slouchy wear-with-leggings drop-shoulder sort of deal. I’ll see what shakes out!

(Also, the Shetland islands look like this. I’ve never seen so many sheep and romantic cliffs in my life):

(We had pretty stunning weather the whole time, I’m not going to lie.)

The third sweater was another fingering weight one – the Fete cardigan. But I need to give that its proper due and report on it in its own post!

Happy June, knitting friends!

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Pattern: Treysta pullover
Yarn: Alafoss Lopi, in 4 colours

Pattern: My own stranded colour-work pullover
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette, in 6 colours

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Tags: colour-work knitting, finished object, finished object: sweater, stranded colour-work, sweater knitting, sweaters, travel, travel knitting